Sept. 9, 2010 - Earl!!!!

Riley loved Earl. She would walk up behind him and say "Up! Up!"...

...and she would sail in the air...

...flip upsidedown...

...and land!

A very festive man at the Scottish festival

These guys were really talented. One is playing the didgeridoo and keyboards at the same time while the other played the guitar, bagpipes and sang. They were awesome!

Riley and the boys at the Scottish festival

Earl with some women in traditional Scottish clothing

The sheepdog herded the sheep through an obstacle

And waited patiently while the sheep went through a gate. Not all dogs were this good, we saw one chase a sheep around and around!

Chad was ready to get into the whisky tasting

A massive (but very relaxed) Highland steer

Riley is obsessed with wheels right now

Hmm, I wonder what made Earl stop by this booth?

Riley, Chad, David (a friend from Rantoul HS) and Earl sampling Scottish whisky

Riley loved everything about Earl, she kept trying to wear his shoes.

Earl and Riley

The Freese's

Riley kept sitting on her toys and trying to scoot around. We were going to wait until Christmas to give her a scooter, but look at her face! How could we deny her?

So we gave her a firetruck scooter a few months early. She is one happy toddler!

Earl flew in from Chicago to spend Labor Day weekend with us and as always, we had a blast. He always charms the ladies, and Riley certainly loves him. They play games, laugh, and have the best time as you can see from her face. He taught her all kinds of words (good ones of course!) including "Chief" and "mocha." The Starbucks baristas are very impressed when she can order for me.

The 4 of us went to the Scottish Festival, reportedly the largest gathering of the clans in California. It was really cool! The Scottish bands played fun music, we got to see some very impressive (and not impressive) sheep herding dogs, and the boys did a whisky tasting. Riley is usually very good in crowds because there is lots to see. She watched everyone from her seat in the backpack and had fun running around when we let her loose.

We finally got Riley a scooter. For the last few weeks she has been sitting on all of her toys and trying to use her feet to push herself around. I thought we would wait until Christmas to give her a scooter but Chad felt sorry for our deprived child so we got her a fire truck scooter. It plays one of her favorite songs and siren noises, which she loves to copy. Right away she began scooting back and forth, I have no idea how she knew how to do this. Chad thinks her mountain biking instincts are manifesting at an early age.